Today is the first day at the PASS Data Community Summit and I'm in Seattle where I'll get to open the conference and introduce the Microsoft keynote. I'm sure the keynote will be full of announcements on something, but what?

I'm writing this a little over a week before the event, and I have no idea what Microsoft will do. Actually, by the time you read this I may have some ideas as there was a practice session yesterday, but I can't tell you anything. NDA, and really, by the time I got something organized, the keynote will be done.

You can stream the keynote, and watch the opening (and wave to me if you want) for the conference for free. Some of you may read this before that time, and if you do, then think about this question: what do you want to hear Microsoft announce or what would get you excited about data work.

I don't often spend time thinking about what I might like, mostly because I can't influence things and I don't like to spend too much time dreaming about databases or what things would help sell more licenses or compute or anything else. However, I am interested to know if a new version of SQL Server is coming (and when) and what might be in it. Or if there are structural changes that might be interesting to me as someone who helps customers work with databases and data.

If you complain about the performance of SQL Server 2022 and want bugs fixed, that's fine, but that's not going to be in a keynote. Instead, think about what things could be added to SQL Server, Azure, Fabric, or some part of the data platform. Where will Microsoft go that might help our organizations or be interesting? Think about what you might want to adopt in a year or 2 if it works as designed.

I have no idea, though I suspect AI is going to be said once, maybe twice, or maybe even a few more times 😉

Leave a guess in the comments. If you don't watch it live, then take a guess and watch it tomorrow to see if you were right.